"I have a feeling someone else exploded, not our man." Sven pointed towards where the explosion sound came from, "If it is, or if it isn't: when the map appears it won't be just us people see. I don't know how far the very west point is, but somewhere around there should suffice. Remember, if we're on the edge, we can't get shot at from behind."

"Right," Cecil answered and the two kept going.

Quickly ducking down, Amber spun Tiana around and placed her left shoulder under her partners hips. She then stood, lifting the friendly proxy onto her shoulder like a fireman, then she spun around herself and ran for a large nearby tree, roughly 2 meters in diameter. Once she reached the other side, Amber placed Tiana's damaged body sitting up against the trunk.
Dammit Amber thought, that didnt go well at all, I have to stop underestimating these damned civilians or Ill never win this thing.
"Tiana dear" she said, "are you ok? Can you move your proxy? I wont be able to beat these bastards on my own."
Then, Amber had a thought. The way that grappleing proxy moved. His attacks, could it be.
Switching to the external speaker, she dialed up the volume and said, " Hey, any chance thats you Jack?"

Jean scoffed at the warning. What was the proxy going to do, limp on him? The advantage was firmly in the mechanic's hands, and no amount of empty threats was going to convince him of the contrary. He found himself wishing that he'd conserved one of his grenades for just such an occasion, but quickly perished the thought: finishing this fight with a grenade would mean losing the opportunity to gain any more.

Taking a few steps back, Jean feinted cooperation, then immediately began sprinting directly toward his opponent's hiding place. The plan was simple: the crippled proxy's right arm had been damaged, so it was likely relying on its baselard for protection. Jean would easily be able to stomach a few hits while he jumped from the top of the outcropping and pinned it down, assuming it reacted in time and retaliated at all.

Instance 1 (Jean, Amber)

As Jean reached the top of the rock formation and looked down upon the opposing proxy, his suspicions were confirmed. The right arm had now snapped off at the elbow from the strain of being bent back too far. Unfortunately, the proxy had heard Jean’s rocky ascent and had its camera trained on him. Rather than aiming at him with its Baselard, however, it had readied one of its own grenades to deter his approach.

Before Jean could pick the proxy off from the relative safety of his perch, however, bullets whizzed by his frame. A few found purchase, but no major damage was done. The proxy that had taken the rugged path had altered its course and approached Jean’s position from the side, following the sound of its partner’s gunshot.

***

Grapplesauce finished his retreat and ducked into cover as his partner continued to lay down suppressive fire. A few shots pelted Tiana’s back as Amber lifted her proxy and carried it to safety. “Pff. Come on, I almost had ‘em.” She complained mockingly as her ally propped her up against the tree. Ignoring the remark, Amber addressed their attackers.

“Hmm? Ah, I thought I recognized that shoddy marksmanship and careless strategizing. I’m glad — and honestly a bit surprised — to see you managed to make it this far, Amber.” Grapplesauce responded. Er, Jack, rather.

“Wait, you know these guys?” A girl’s voice chimed in over the communicator.

“Ah, right. You did a good job following my instructions, Penelope, but it’s time to stand down. These proxies are friends. At least, the one that still has both arms is. Speaking of which…” Jack lifted the arm he had swiped from Tiana’s proxy, then tossed it to his partner, who proceeded to attach it to her own. “We’re not giving this back.”

“Well, since you two know each other, um, we should team up. If we work together, we can all make it to the final four!” Penelope said optimistically.


12 contestants still remain.

__________
Instance 2 (Sven)

As Sven and Cecil continued to walk along the edge of the island, a proxy stepped out of the woods in front of them, just outside of the Longsword’s effective range.

“Hey, you two! This is where your journey ends!” He shouted over the communicator, pointing at them dramatically with his arm stub. This was accompanied by an exasperated sigh as another proxy appeared to stand beside him.

“Good work, giving away our position.” Despite her apparent irritation, she spoke in a composed manner.


14 contestants still remain.

The sheer incompetence exemplified by Jean's targets was almost bewildering. First off, the crippled proxy had chosen to arm one of its grenades instead of fending his attacker off with its remaining fire arm. What on earth was the pilot hoping to accomplish? The mechanic was already at close range; if the grenade exploded anywhere near its intended target, the crippled proxy would be caught in the blast and likely fatally damaged. Secondly, Jean's other opponent had begun firing far before closing an appropriate distance and had completely given away its position and any chance it had of saving its partner. Tactical genius.

With his fellow applicants so intent on ensuring the mechanic's victory, he seized the opportunity and quite literally leapt into action. Jumping from the outcropping that had previously dissimulated his foe, he landed with his left foot planted squarely on the proxy, knocking it down and pinning it to the ground. Almost simultaneously, he cranked his arm magnets to the maximum and extracted the S7-4B Blade, driving it into his opponent's left shoulder. Jean couldn't tell whether or not the dagger had fully disabled the limb's motors, but at this point, he had little time to check. As he removed his foot from the proxy's downed body, the mechanic twisted to the right and bent his knees, using the potential energy to hoist the crippled proxy into a shield-like position. The live grenade still stuck to its magnet stub was a problem, but the mechanic figured he could easily wrestle it onto his own stub and dispose of it before the countdown ended.

Almost as if on a trigger, Sven pulled out both his Longsword and the Longsword he salvaged from the other proxy, and walked slowly to the proxies in front of him, the Longswords aimed between their eyes:

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow your heads off right now."

What are you doing? Just... shoot them! They'll just get in your way from your goal. The familiar voice rang in Sven's head again, as if on cue.

"Nggh! Stupid voices."

"First of all," Amber stated, "you can refer to me as Her Ladyship Amber Chapman Countess of Warbalok, not you dear, Penelope was it , you can call me Amber. Secondly we both know I'm a better shot than you." Switching to a private comm channel with Jack, she continued," And lastly, seriously "Jack Shades" you couldn't come up with anything better than that."
Amber then turned her attention to Tiana, and helped her to her feet and checked her proxy for and significant damage.
"Tiana dear how are you doing, did you suffer any loss in function?"

Instance 1 (Jean, Amber)

“You’re insane!” Jean heard over his communicator as he manhandled the crippled proxy, the damage to its left arm rendering it immobile. The other proxy ceased fire with its partner’s body blocking Jean. As the mechanic fumbled for his victim’s grenade, however, he realized it was no longer on the proxy. Neither was its left arm, which had been disengaged during the scuffle. The discarded limb and the grenade, which had now been live for a few seconds, both sat on the ground between the combatants. The enemy proxy jerked one of its legs forward, attempting to kick the grenade behind Jean, and simultaneously brought up the jagged remains of its right arm and drove it toward Jean’s head module.

***

Jack replied to Amber on a private line. “Wh- Hey, no. It’s Jack Spade. That’s a cool…” He switched over to broadcast mode. “Hey, Jack Spade is a cool name, right, guys?”

“Meh.” Penelope responded nonchalantly.

“I think it’s pretty cool.” Tiana said, slowly bending her limbs as the shock to her proxy’s torso wore off. “Hey Amber, this friend of yours is quite a card, isn’t he? You two make an interesting pair.” She paused for a moment. “Uh, no, I’m fine.”

Suddenly, everyone heard an electronic chime, followed by a voice. "Five minutes have passed since the last elimination. All remaining participants will now have their positions marked on the overhead map. Additionally, all communications from here on will automatically be broadcasted to all nearby proxies. Happy hunting, and have a nice day." Twelve red dots lit up on everyone’s displays. A simple diagram of the island showed that there were five participants on the rocky side of the map, and seven in the forest. The latter were in two clumps, one group of four, and another group of three roughly fifty meters to the southwest.

“Enemies. How do we proceed?” Jack addressed Amber, his tone growing serious.

__________
Instance 2 (Sven)

As Sven walked toward the aggressors, they slinked backward, maintaining their distance until they disappeared amid the trees and undergrowth once again.

“You seem to be confused.” The girl spoke. “We’re the ones who should be saying that.”

“Now now, sister. Don’t provoke him. He has two guns, see? Man, what a badass.”

“Two guns or twenty, he can’t hit what he can’t see, and those two are sitting ducks out in the open like that.”

“Hah, right you are, sister. Come, then, friends. Come and meet your doom!"

Before Sven had a chance to act, Cecil approached him and rested an arm stub on his proxy’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to them. They’re bluffing. Look.” He gestured toward the tree line. “They aren’t confident that they can hit us at this distance. That's why they haven't fired at us yet. As long as we don’t get any closer to the forest, they won't attack.


ATTENTION, NERDS: This post has been edited. If you last read it before 9:00 PM CST, February 3rd, the year of our Lord two-thousand and sixteen, make sure you go back and read the new text before posting. The added text will be in bright, eye-searing pink. Thank you.

It should have come as no surprise that the opportunity to pilot robots for a living would attract a number of odd characters, but Gideon was still baffled by the actions of the man who had left him alive. By any rights, at this point he should have been outside Incandescent labs and headed back to patty flipping, his life-changing opportunity wasted by a dud grenade. Yet somehow, thanks to the unmerited mercy of a total stranger, he was still in the running. Perhaps someone up there was looking out for him after all. Whatever the reason, he had been granted a second second chance. The drummer would not let it go to waste.

The first order of business was to free himself of the grenade that bound his arms together. With his stubs’ magnets locked at 100% power, this would be no easy task. What it would more than likely come down to was the loss of an arm, if Gideon could figure out how to separate one from the proxy body in the few seconds between the grenade’s activation and its deadly explosion. Perhaps there was a particularly solid outcropping closeby towards which he could run, arm outstretched, hoping to destroy the shoulder joint and escape the blast. It was a foolhardy plan, but then again, most of his pla- *PRAKOW*

Gideon’s train of thought was violently derailed by the sound of a single shot, a shot the broke the momentary silence that he had been afforded to think. The drummer whirled around, scanning the area for his aggressor. The new foe was easy enough to spot, and close enough that Gideon wondered how it had managed to get there without alerting either him or his now absent captor. Before any of these questions could be answered, however, the stealthy newcomer vanished behind a mound of stone.

Gideon was in no condition to take on what was most likely a fully-functioning proxy. That, he could readily admit. He also noted ruefully that his attempts at fighting on his own thus far had landed him in a rather poor spot. Perhaps it was in his best interest to form a true alliance, and attempt to win the game with this other proxy at his side. After all, there would be four winners. There was no reason that they couldn’t both be among them. He hoped only that the other pilot would see him as a valuable ally despite the condition in which his vehicle now found itself. There was only one thing to do, then.

“Hey, I’m Gideon. Gideon Falk,” the drummer called out, broadcasting to the mecha hiding in the rocky terrain. “I’m looking for a partner. Someone to win this thing with, y’know?” It was unfortunate, but Gideon really was forced to lay everything on the unknown person’s better nature. Ah well. In case things turned sour, he still had a grenade. That was worth something, at least. He finished his simple pitch with a heartfelt query. “Whaddya say, man?”

"...and neither can we." Sven retorted back to Cecil in a snap. "The only reason why I'm so aggressive right now is that the maps will appear any minute now... and granted our position, it's not worth it."

Sven let down his precision aim and put the Longswords away. It seemed like forever before Sven turned to face Cecil:

"Now what? The perimeter goes right into the forest; and I'm not really apt to go back towards the river, with that explosion and whatnot." Sven was pointing in two directions, but was facing a third: the edge of the map.

"Cecil, can you do me a favor?"

...

"Win this for me..."

But despite the obvious intention, Sven hesitated, staring at the boundary.
---
Win this for me, Cecil.

No.

Win this for her.

I came here because Mai couldn't. Mai worked the worst possible job to keep a steady stream of income. It's not like I didn't make any money though--I did, but it was too inconsistent. I guess it's the life of being a game developer. But you'd think with the sheer amount of video games that come out that I would be busy enough for some sort of semi-consistent income, but that's not the case.

I almost didn't come to Incandescent Laboratories to duel these robots. When Mai told me she was called in to work, I almost decided to stay home and work on the indie title I was working on in my spare time. But I came anyway. I wanted to win, for Mai's sake.

And I can't say I didn't have a little fun either. It was like being completely immersed in a video game. Actually... that's exactly what it was, a video game. A real life video game hybrid. I couldn't say if I dreamed it myself before, but they got to it before me.

I also befriended a total stranger. Which in normal circumstances I wouldn't have. But we're in a video game; anything is possible.

That's probably why I thought about jumping out. I knew we both couldn't win, so one of us had to be sacrificed for the other's safety.

Now I'm faced with the worst decision in this game: jump for Cecil, or stay around for Mai.

"Well, Jack," Amber replied," I think we should go for the group on the rocky side. There are fewer of them over there and maybe while we are busy with them, the two groups on the other side will attack each other. So if no one has any objections, I suggest we get moving."

Jean nearly panicked as the opposing proxy disengaged its limb. That... had not been part of his plan. As the grenade slipped out of his reach, so went his chances of escaping its imminent explosion.

Ever intent on giving Jean the upper hand, however, his opponent took an inexplicable series of actions: instead of taking advantage of the mechanic's fumble and running from the grenade while he still had a slight chance to escape, the pilot completely disregarded self preservation and attacked head on. As Jean lowered his arm stubs to the ground, he scoffed at the proxy's laughable assault. A kick combined with a punch was nearly guaranteed to be uncoordinated, and the fact that it was using two of its three limbs offensively meant that it had very little keeping it in balance. The machine was practically begging to be toppled over.


His posture low to the ground, Jean pounced for his opponent's upright leg. Grappling it with both arms, he stood and threw his hands upward with all the force that he could command out of his proxy's robotic limbs. If his makeshift Judo throw worked as intended, the enemy proxy would tumble directly onto the explosive and absorb most of the blast. If it didn't, his goose was very, very cooked.

Instance 1 (Jean, Amber)

The crippled proxy sailed over Jean as he tossed it onto the grenade, landing with a loud crash.

“Welp. Balls.” Was all he managed to say before the grenade exploded, tearing his body to shreds. Unfortunately, the proxy wasn’t enough to absorb all of the explosion. The shockwave slammed into Jean’s proxy, knocking it to the ground and severely damaging one of its legs in the process. At that moment, the other proxy appeared from the side of the outcropping and leveled both of its weapons on Jean.

“Oh.” She said as she witnessed the results of the skirmish. “Well damn. Looks like I’m out a partner. Hey, you. Let’s team up.” It wasn’t a request.

***

Jack looked at Amber for a moment, somewhat surprised. “Alright, then. Let’s get moving.”

The group made their way to the rugged side of the map, managing to cross the river without incident. The group of three that was still in the forest hadn’t attempted to close in on them since their positions were displayed on the map. By the time everyone was across, one of the dots on the rocky half of the island had disappeared.


11 contestants remain.

__________
Instance 2 (Sven, Gideon, Adrian)

Oblivious to Sven’s dilemma, Cecil turned and continue walking along the outer edge of the map.

***

The proxy that had shot at Gideon peeked back around the corner. “Oh, hey man. It’s me, Adrian. Y’know. Wheelchair guy. We should totally team up. If you follow me, we can rendezvous with my sidekick. Erm, although I’d be much obliged if you tossed that grenade first.”


One more than a baker’s dozen contestants remain.

Jean laughed at the woman's tone. Even while fighting the other proxy, the mechanic was skilled enough at simply counting in his head to know what Ms. guns-a-blazing apparently didn't: her clips were empty. He'd seen this exact position before, and it didn't end well for her side.

"Nah."

Acting quickly, the fallen proxy pilot took aim with his Baselard, intending to place a series of rounds in his would-be attacker's face.

"Oh good, I was afraid they were a team. If they're fighting each other itll buy us time to take out that group following us." Amber said confidently.
Looking around, Amber saw a group of rocks near the bank of the river and a small bluff overlooking the river.
"Jack," Amber said," you and Tiana set up behind those rocks while Penelope and I take position on that overlook. Dont fire until they are in the river, thatll give us the advantage."